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Kindly Morrow
Free plan

Talk to Your Home: Claude as your voice assistant in Home Assistant

Say "Okay Nabu, turn off the desk lamp." Claude does it.

A renter or homeowner who wants a voice assistant they control, starting with one smart plug.

Start the planCopy the first prompt

The plan is free. Read it all below.

We do not sell this hardware. The shopping list below links to its makers.

You need: Home Assistant Green; a Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition; a USB-C power adapter for the speaker (it comes without one); one smart plug; an Anthropic API key, from a pay-as-you-go Claude developer account (needs a credit card).

Last updated

The plan in 3 steps

  1. Step 1

    Set up Home Assistant Green and add a smart plug named Desk lamp.

  2. Step 2

    Add the Anthropic integration and let it control only the lamp.

  3. Step 3

    Say "Okay Nabu, turn on the desk lamp" to the Voice Preview Edition.

What you need

Shopping list

  • Home Assistant Green: The box that runs Home Assistant. Sold by its maker and their retailers.
  • Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition: The speaker you talk to. No assembly. It comes without a power adapter: use a USB-C adapter rated 5V 2A. It joins your WiFi on 2.4 GHz.
  • One smart plug: Any plug that works with Home Assistant.

Check current prices on the makers' sites. We do not sell these.

You also need

  • A USB-C power adapter for the speaker (it comes without one)
  • An Anthropic API key, from a pay-as-you-go Claude developer account (needs a credit card)

Your first evening

  1. Set up Home Assistant Green

    Plug in Home Assistant Green and finish its setup.

  2. Add the smart plug

    In Settings, open Devices & services and add the integration for your smart plug's brand.

  3. Name it Desk lamp

    Plug a lamp into the smart plug and name the plug Desk lamp, so what you say matches its name.

  4. Add the Anthropic integration

    In Devices & services, add the Anthropic integration and paste your Anthropic API key. This is a paid service and needs a credit card.

  5. Let Claude control Home Assistant

    In the integration's options, turn on Control Home Assistant. Without it, Claude can answer but cannot switch anything.

  6. Share only the lamp

    Expose only Desk lamp to the assistant, so it can control nothing else.

  7. Make a Claude voice assistant

    Set up an Assist pipeline (Home Assistant's name for a voice assistant) and pick Claude as its conversation agent.

  8. Plug in the speaker

    Power the Voice Preview Edition with a USB-C adapter and follow its setup wizard.

These steps follow the makers' own instructions. We have not run them ourselves yet.

Sources:

We test this before we promise it

The last steps, as we have written them

These finish the first evening. We have not confirmed them yet, so read them as a preview. We change anything that does not work.

  1. Give the speaker your Claude assistant

    Make sure the Voice Preview Edition uses the assistant you made with Claude. We confirm where Home Assistant asks for this in our own run.

  2. Say it

    Say "Okay Nabu, turn on the desk lamp." The lamp comes on.

Prompts to paste into Claude

Copy one, paste it, and fill in anything in square brackets. Claude takes it one step at a time.

  1. 1. Help me with setup

    Paste into the Claude app

    I'm setting up Home Assistant Green for the first time. I'm on step [X] and I see [screen]. What do I do next?

  2. 2. Name my devices

    Paste into the Claude app

    Here are my devices: [list]. Which ones should I expose to the voice assistant, and what should I name them so voice commands are easy?

  3. 3. It said yes but nothing happened

    Paste into the Claude app

    My assistant says it turned the lamp on, but nothing happened. What settings should I check?

  4. 4. Test commands

    Paste into the Claude app

    Write 10 natural voice commands I can test with a lamp, a fan and a TV plug.

When you have a weekend

  1. Stickers that run scenes

    Add NFC stickers that run Home Assistant scenes, using the Home Assistant steps in the Tap Kit plan.

These steps follow the makers' own instructions. We have not run them ourselves yet.

Sources:

What it can't do

  • It needs a paid Anthropic API key.
  • There are only three built-in wake words: Okay Nabu, Hey Jarvis and Hey Mycroft.
  • The Voice Preview Edition is not a music speaker.
  • If the integration's maximum token setting is too low, Claude may describe an action without doing it.
  • Claude can control only what you expose to it.

Questions

Guides that go with this plan

New to this? Start here, or see every kit plan.